It was the first time Abel visited the elves’ Angstrom City in his human form. Grand Duke Edwina, Duke Albert, and Lady Carrie were waiting for him outside the teleportation circle before he arrived.
“The great Emperor Abel, Welcome!” Grand Duke Edwina bowed at Abel.
She sighed. Abel’s growth had reached a point where she had to greet him personally. She didn’t have to do this even when Abel was a Master Alchemist or Grandmaster blacksmith.
Abel had become the most powerful Emperor in the Holy Continent. His military force was on par with the other races.
Abel was visiting Angstrom City in public. Even though he didn’t tell everyone about it, as the ruler, it would disrespect the Kingdom of St Ellis if Grand Duke Edwina didn’t greet him personally.
“The prestigious Grand duke Edwina, the prestigious Duke Albert, and Lady Carrie thank you so much for having me!” Abel smiled and bowed.
Duke Albert and Lady bowed back.
This was his first visit in public, so he decided to teleport through the public teleportation circle of Angstrom city. It was suitable for humans as well.
Due to the safety of the elves, other races could only use public teleportation circles. Others needed to go through a strict identity check.
After everyone bowed, Abel left the teleportation circle under the lead of Grand Duke Edwina. A silvery-white carriage was waiting by the side of a boulevard. It was the exclusive carriage of the Grand Ducal Palace.
The golden crown on Abel’s head shimmered under the golden sun. His prestige was on full display. The elves who got the news were gathered beside the Boulevard.
When Abel appeared, they all bowed and welcomed this human Emperor.
Abel did not expect the elves to be this welcoming. Abel was visiting by himself. He didn’t even bring any guards, so Grand Duke Edwina could have treated this as a low-key visit, but it seemed like the entire Angstrom City was welcoming him.
Abel looked around and bowed before he stepped on to the luxurious carriage.
“Grand Duke Edwina, Thank you so much!” Abel said gently as he looked outside the carriage and waved at the elves.
“Your majesty, Abel, I was just using your name to calm the citizens down!” Grand Duke Edwina did not hide her attention.
“Aren’t the elves always calm?” Abel asked awkwardly.
According to his reports, the elves were the least affected by the food shortage.
“Lately, the elves have been forced to add more meat to their diet, which created some uproar. They believe the moon goddess will be furious if this amount of hunting in the double moon forest continues. The elves seem calm on the surface, but we have many underlying struggles!” Grand Duke Edwina said bluntly.
Abel nodded. He understood that any change in tradition would cause some uproar.
“So I decided to gather the elves to see our relationship with the Kingdom of St Ellis. Perhaps this will change some elve’s wrong intentions!” Grand Duke Edwina continued.
Angstrom City had allied with the Duchy of Carmel’s Bakong City long ago. In the past, it was the Duchy of Carmel who needed support, but now the tables had turned. The elves needed the powerful kingdom of St Ellis to help stabilize their citizens.
“Grand Duke Edwina, if this is the case, the elves can exchange crops from the kingdom of St Ellis with meat. Is that a solution?” Abel suggested.
“Eating meat is not the problem. Some elves just have to eat fruit and fruit only. Even if they ate vegetables instead of meat, the same problem would occur!” Grand Duke Edwina said with a laugh and rejected Abel’s kind-hearted suggestion.
Abel felt very glad that he had handed over everything to the state. If not, he too would be as stressed as Grand Duke Edwina.
“I heard you’ve been in a retreat for a long time. What brought you to the elves?” Grand Duke Edwina then changed the topic.
Abel had visited the elves a few times before, but this time he was doing so in a human form. He notified Grand Duke Edwina beforehand, which was why she had organized this welcoming ceremony, but she didn’t know the reason for his visit.
“I can’t improve from another retreat. I’ve reached the pinnacle of a rank 15 wizard. Do you have any idea what I should do next?” Abel shrugged his shoulders.
Grand Duke Edwina was stunned. How old was Abel? Could he become a 20-year-old elite wizard?
“It’s good to take a walk outside during bottleneck like this. Use this world as a source of inspiration. When the time comes, you will be leveling up before you know it!” Grand Duke Edwina replied after a moment of thinking. There were many stories about breaking through a bottleneck, but there was not a for sure method. They all came with some uncertainty.
The best way to go about it was to experience as many emotions as possible.
Abel did not have much to say about Grand Duke Edwina’s suggestion. Instead, he continued, “Grand Duke Edwina, I was actually invited by Blue Dragon Emmanuel to the dragon abyss, so I just wanted to transit through Angstrom city’s teleportation circle!”
Grand Duke Edwina was not surprised that Abel knew Blue Dragon Emmanuel. Abel was the one who helped the elves resolve Blue Dragon Emmanuel’s food demand, and a portion of food was teleported to the dragon abyss through the elves since that day.
However, she was very curious why Blue Dragon Emmanuel had invited Abel to the Dragon abyss. That place was exclusive to dragons. Even elves and dwarfs could only stay outside.
“I also want to see Lorraine. As you know, I’ve already fulfilled my rank 15 wizard pattern, I won’t stay for too long in the Holy Continent once I became an elite wizard, so I have something to say to her!” Abel said in a somewhat embarrassed tone.
Grand Duke Edwina hesitated a little and replied, “Abel, Lorraine is no longer in the elves!”
Abel was caught off guard for a moment. Lorraine was the only girl he had feelings for in this world. Although they haven’t interacted for long, the days they spent together were the warmest days he ever had.
He always felt insecure ever since he arrived in this world, and at the time, Lorraine was going through a similar situation. Because of this mutual need for company, their relationship grew.
Or maybe his feelings for Lorraine were irrational. Unlike Lorraine, Abel was already an adult before he came to this world, so it was not easy for him to get the feeling of romance.
Also, as his power grew, his feelings had become more and more suppressed. The days of wizard training and exploring in the Dark World also cut off many connections he had with the common world.
Therefore, he always thought of Lorraine as his partner. If Lorraine felt the same, he would protect this feeling until the end of time.
However, Lorraine had left the elves, and the 20 years Grand Duke Edwina promised had barely passed.
“Did Lorraine ask to leave? Was it her decision?” Abel’s voice was sounding cold.
“Your majesty Abel, I am the one who asked her to leave!” grand Duke Edwina lowered her voice.
Suddenly, the energy of a dragon lashed out from Abel’s body, causing an immediate change in Grand Duke Edwina’s face.
A protection shield emerged on her and her husband, Duke Albert, to block this energy.
However, most elves along the boulevard were stunned by this energy. The weak ones had fallen to the ground. Even the powerful ones were struggling.
His mind always suppressed Abel’s dragon energy, normally he would only let out a little bit, but it had lashed out violently under the anger in his heart.
Abel always thought of Grand Duke Edwina as a great trading partner. He had supplied large amounts of training potions to them and used the 3rd goddess spring water to help Angstrom City.
All of this was for Lorraine. Grand Duke Edwina was her mother, and Angstrom City was her home.
This was a betrayal. There was not a single person in this world who played with his feelings.
The dragon core altered Abel’s body and soul, and this immense anger had successfully helped him achieve a balance. The dragon energy in his soul was perfectly unleashed by his body.
Abel had fulfilled his rank 15 wizard core. His heart was in an unstable state, and the blue dragon’s ice crystal breathing technique continued to alter his body towards the form of a dragon.
He was not aware, but this explosion of anger had shot up his body from 60 points to 100 points. It was almost the body of a young dragon.
The dragon energy lashed out like a blizzard. Lady Carrie was the closest to him in the carriage, so she felt it the most clearly.
Bang! Lady Carrie dropped in the carriage. Her face was pale.
This was why the elves always lived under the command of dragons. The dragons were born to be nightmares. Their powerful dragon energy could cause the summons of a druid to revolt. If a druid had been hit by dragon energy for too long, they might forever lose their summons, which would cause damage to their soul.
“Abel, stop, please let me explain!” Duke Albert yelled.
He knew what kind of chaos would create if dragon energy was lashed out across the elves. He would regret his wife’s inconsiderate mistake.
Grand Duke Edwina was also stunned. She just wanted to test Abel; it was in every mother’s nature. She really had the intention to break Abel and Lorraine, but Abel was too powerful, to the point where she could no longer not worry.
She knew the chaos of noble humans. They had many concubines besides their wives. She needed to know if Abel still felt the same way. If not, she would keep Lorraine a secret forever.
She did not expect Abel to have such a big reaction. The dragon energy that was lashed out from Abel could almost suppress any elite Druid.
The voice of Duke Albert made Abel regain himself. He retracted his dragon energy. It was the first time he lost himself in a long time.
He had been calm most of the time ever since he got the World Stone. He rarely lost himself from anger.
“Lorraine is very gifted, so we decided to send her to the Central Continent Moon Goddess temple to undergo training. It’s for her future!” Duke Albert quickly added.
“Where is the Central Continent?” Abel lowered his voice.
“It’s a place you can go with the super teleportation circle after you become an elite wizard. Lorraine had only agreed to go when she heard that you are already an intermediate wizard. She will be waiting for you there!” Duke Albert replied.
Abel felt his heart lifted. What just happened made him realize how important Lorraine was to him. Even the World Stone could not keep him calm. But, suddenly, his face changed.
“Duke Albert, quickly help me organize a place!” He lowered his voice again.
Duke Albert didn’t know what Abel meant at first, but he soon sensed level-up energy coming from Abel.
“Stop the carriage!” Grand Duke Edwina yelled.
She then jumped down from the carriage and ran into a noble elf courtyard while many elves were just waking up from the dragon energy impact.
“This courtyard will now be in control by the grand-ducal palace. All elves leave in 10 breathes!” Her voice filled the courtyard.
The elves in the courtyard quickly left as Abel appeared in a flash of white light.
Abel didn’t have time to explain to Grand Duke Edwina. All he could do was to summon his Druid soul. It was the first step to becoming an elite wizard. If he missed this change, he didn’t know when he would be able to level up again.
Grand Duke Edwina also knew how important this was to Abel, so she quickly left the courtyard and left Abel alone.
She didn’t want Abel to fail his level up because of her. She also didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing that her provoking had caused Abel to level up.
After fulfilling a rank 15 wizard pattern, most wizards would spend 10 or more years harmonizing their will and mana before seeking an opportunity to level up.
She did not believe a wizard could level up as soon as their wizard rank was fulfilled, so she did not tell Abel that he should bring another wizard with him when going out.
Abel had gone through a sudden roller coaster of emotions today. Besides the Bennett and Harry family in this world, Abel did not have many relatives and friends.
This was almost impossible for an emperor. Most emperors had large amounts of nobles’ connection and support.
Abel settled into the level up energy as his druid soul set up the mana gathering circle and barrier circle around him.
His scent vanished as the magic circles were ignited. However, a giant black hole emerged from the sky. Flying Flame flew out, followed by White Snow. Finally, Johnson stepped out in its white armor, sparkling in lightning and holding a lightning long spear.
The scent of Flying Flame and White Snow filled the courtyard. Johnson, on the other hand, was standing alertly guarding the courtyard with his lightning spear. It was 10 meters tall, so the entire courtyard was within his sight.
“On command, send the grand-ducal palace druid defense guards here and drive out all the surrounding elves. Anyone who approaches will be killed!” Grand Duke Edwina said loudly through the city magic circle control card.
Abel was the emperor of the kingdom of St Ellis, and a wizard was defenseless when leveling up. If anything happened to Abel, the kingdom of St Ellis would send their Sky Ships to take down this city with him.
Also, Abel was the only man Lorraine recognized. Although Grand Duke Edwina doubted him, his safety was still very important.
The entire Angstrom City began to move. There was no time for grace. 40 druids teleported through the giant teleportation circle of the city and spread around the courtyard. All the other elves were driven out violently.
The giant protection circle of the city was also operating on full power. The circle would hold down any creature that showed up around the courtyard.
This was all grand duke Edwina could do. It was all the resources she could move.
Abel kneeled on a cushion within the mana gathering and protection circle. The wizard core within him began to undergo some tremendous change.
Wizard core was a wizard’s main source of energy. It was where their mana was stored. It was as important as a combat qi core was to a knight.
At that moment, Abel’s wizard had turned into a wild beast and ruthlessly began to suck up the mana and level up energy around him.
Transforming from rank 15 to rank 16 was an important process as well as a breakthrough. Its leveling up energy was stronger than any other ranks, and it only intensified with time.
This little mana gathering circle could no longer satisfy the need of Abel. As time passed, he needed more and more mana.
His druid soul sent out a stream of power of the will and took out a large mana gathering circle from the Varaya’s ring. However, a giant mana gathering circle could not be set up just like that.
The druid soul took the most direct method and connected with the headmaster identity card.
Soon, 50 little war puppets jumped out from the Varaya’s ring and began to set up the circle under the guidance of the commander spirit.
Grand Duke Edwina felt almost unreal as she stared at those little puppets putting the pieces in place. She turned to Duke Albert and asked, “Albert have you heard of someone who could use their power of the will during a level up?”
“Edwina, it’s Abel. What more can we expect?” He replied helplessly.
Too many miracles had happened to Abel. Becoming a Master alchemist, grandmaster Blacksmith, an emperor, as well as a 19-year-old elite wizard. How surprising was it that he could use the power of the will during a Level up?
“Everyone will be forbidden to talk about anything that happened today!”Grand Duke Edwina lowered her voice to the surrounding druids.
“Yes, your Majesty!” the Druids replied.
They knew the person in front of them was a human emperor, so keeping it a secret was not surprising.
When Grand Duke Edwina saw the giant mana gathering circle has set up, she was suddenly reminded of something “Get all the elves even further away!” She yelled.
The giant mana gathering circles operate by gathering the surrounding mana, so it was best to give it more space.
Abel’s Druid soup left out another strand of power of the will and ignited the circle. An immense absorption force changed the movement of wind, causing holes in the sky.
Grand Duke Edwina received a warning from the city protection circle, but she did not intervene with Abel’s mana gathering circle. Instead, she began to assist it by pushing all the mana in Angstrom city towards Abel’s giant mana gathering circle.
A white glow emerged from Abel’s wizard core, and endless amounts of mana and leveling up energy rushed within. The 15 wizard pattern he had fulfilled throughout his wizard journey also began to glow and detached from the wizard core.
Those wizard patterns spread out within Abel’s body. His body was already far stronger than any elite wizard, so all this did was make his body closer to the elemental energy.
A wizard core without a wizard pattern was highly unstable, especially since Abel’s wizard core was much bigger than any wizard core.
This instability was also caused by large amounts of mana and leveling up energy rushing in. A wizard core would blast open if those 2 energies were not balanced properly by the wizard’s power of the will. Many wizards had failed because of this step.
Abel had almost instinctively ignited the World Stone, and the energies were turned into statistics.
Leveling up energy: 979
Mana: 990
These stats had clearly displayed how those energies were affecting Abel’s wizard core.
He gently suppressed the mana entering his body, and the stats quickly changed.
Leveling up energy: 981
Mana: 981
When the energy was balanced, the wizard core was stabled.
More and more energy rushed into Abel’s wizard core, and it was reaching its limit. The next step was to solidify it so it could sustain a rank 16 wizard pattern.
This meant Abel had passed the first challenge, and now he was on to the next.
Solidifying a wizard core was furthering strengthening the fulfilled wizard core. After energies were fused into the core, its quality would increase.
It was a very difficult step, and a wizard needed to constantly compress their wizard core with their power of the will until it had become a solid form. The final form of the wizard core would dictate the training of the elite wizard.
This was why some wizards could no longer level up after rank 16, or some were stuck in a bottleneck for hundreds of years until the day they died.
In order to break through a wizard’s wizard core, they had to be strong enough to sustain a rank 17 wizard pattern. Therefore Abel had to set a good foundation during this transformation. If not, his future transformation would be a few times harder.
What Abel had inherited was better than most inheritance in the Holy Continent. He was a part of the lightnings. With powerful wizards such as the rank 18 wizard Dunn in the Holy Continent, you could just guess how outstanding the lightnings were.
The wizard core needed to be continuously compressed by the power of the will. Therefore the strength of a wizard core was determined by the strength of one’s power of will.
This was why most fulfilled rank 15 wizards would spend many years strengthening their power of the will before seeking the opportunity to level up.
One of Abel’s biggest advantages was his powerful power of the will, and he knew it, so he was confident that he could form an ideal wizard core.
His power of the will turned into a huge mountain and slammed against his wizard core. It began to shake, and the energy within began to compress.
He kept monitoring the condition of his wizard core. He was a little disappointed when his mountainous amount of power of the will began to lose effect on his wizard core. According to the statistics given by the world Stone, there was still a large compressible gap within his wizard core.
He began to regret that he didn’t train his power of the will harder before he leveled up.
He seemed to forget that the level up was an unexpected one. He had entered this state without being fully prepared.
This was also why Grand Duke Edwina felt happy and worried for Abel at the same time. Having the opportunity to level up was good, but this level up was one of the most crucial ones. It could have a huge impact on future progress.
“No, I can’t level up like this!” Abel yelled in his heart. He didn’t want to become a normal elite wizard. He wanted to be a rank 18 one like wizard Dunn.
He also didn’t want to be like Blue Dragon Emmanuel and level up by sleeping for 100 years. He was a human. He just couldn’t accept the level up like dragons.
Certainty flashed within his eyes. He had to take a risk. If not, he would be ordinary, and he just couldn’t accept that.
“Doesn’t a normal wizard level up only take around 2 hours? It has been 3 hours. How come Abel is still not done?” Grand Duke Edwina mumbled in hesitation.
“I hope nothing bad happens!” Duke Albert also said, worried.
